Search - Luciano :: God Is Greater Than Man

It Just Feels Good!. . .

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 04/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Does not the entire reggae world instantaneously become a much better place the second Luciano brings forth a new album? Despite not being spectacular or as controversial as some of his slightly more popular peers, Luciano's place in roots music from the second he began voicing has always been to be the backbone, or the conscience of the music, and it is a role he has more than respectively filled for over a decade strong. While other roots artists may tent to stray slightly from the message of Rastafari, Luciano has always made it a point of his music to never even approach doing such material. The result has been the career of an artists who has undoubtedly been reggae music's dominant roots singer (and perhaps, dominant singer overall) and one of the artists whose music has legitimately and directly had an impact on the world. My own personal interest in the artist came when I discovered his music and just the near flawless manner in which he can deliver a message, be it inspirational, a love song or even a warning or condemnation and almost immediately uplift your nerves. Luciano's music makes you feel good! Simple and flat! He has, like several of his peers been very active on the album circuit throughout his career. Besides dropping well known smashes of albums like Sweep Over My Soul and Where There is Life, Luciano has also maintained his consistency with very very solid albums such as Serious Times, One Way Ticket and the recent Child of a King. Nearly all of his albums have gone to help establish his international reputation as one of the most in demand performers and vocalists for reggae, making him one of the music's (and the country of Jamaica's for that matter) greatest ambassadors.



Having had a very fine and prolific recording career as he had, Luciano has released albums for virtually any reggae record company which is worth mentioning as well as recording for virtually all of the finest roots reggae producers of the past 2 decades, such as Bobby Digital, Black Scorpio, most notably Xterminator, with whom he got his start, and most recently Byron Murray at In the Streetz productions. The veteran has done it all! Also, he has inspired many youths to take to the music as nearly every baritone voiced roots singer to emerge at any point in JA is all but guaranteed to be compared to Luciano, for better or for worse. Solid artists such as Natty King, even the elder Prince Malachi and especially Bushman draw continuous comparisons to the Manchester native for there voicing styles and even though each hold a nice and more than slightly respectable space within the music, none have as of yet been able to capture the magic as consistently as Luciano has seem to (when Natty King was coming forth he even used to bill himself as Luci B or Luci Jr and performed singing Luciano songs in respect to his idol). Also, apart from inspiring the younger (and older artists) Luciano has had an excellent working relationship with many of his peers. There is no wondering what a Capleton, Anthony B or even Beenie Man combination may sound like as Luciano has worked with them all on very nice tunes of varying success. And he also did his part in establishing one of the most promising talents to ever emerge from Jamaica as well as Sizzla Kalonji originally got his international experience opening shows for Luciano during both of their rather long stints for Fattis Burrell at Xterminator, showing Luciano's influence to be not only amongst his fans, but his peers as well.



Coming forth to 2007 and already Luciano's second official release of the year (with a very very fine mix tape also his credit) after February's very solid Revelation Time, we get the wonderfully title God is Greater Than Man from Cousins which finds the artist working with a relatively new and very nice label. In the past 12-18 months Cousins has pushed forward with some very fine material, releasing albums for such acts as Lutan Fyah, Tony Curtis, and on the very same day as this Luciano album, an album, Stronger Than Before from Turbulence. They have also formed somewhat of a working relationship with In the Streetz Productions, a record label ran by producer Byron Murray and Clifford `Mr. Vegas' Smith, as In the Streetz helmed the production work for not only both Lutan Fyah's album for the label, You Bring Blessings and Turbulence's Stronger Than Before, but the label has also released riddim albums for the producer. The relationship, in fact, made the nature of Luciano's album for the label even much more anticipated as I thought maybe we would see an ultra-quick turnaround release for the sequel of last year's Child of a King album which saw In the Streetz doing the production work for Luciano on that VP album. Nonetheless, what we do have here is very very unique in its own way, even though Murray's hand isn't in it at all.



The story of God is Greater Than Man is actually one that has been long written before and time and time again, but I'll never tire of hearing it. While the lyrics and arrangement of the album is typical Luciano standard fare, the mix here is that a nice portion of the album has that very very classic feel to it, and the results at times are divine! One need only plop the cd in space and push play on the first track to know exactly what I mean.



The album begins on the very strong Running For My Life. Bubbling nicely over vintage Duke Reid (there are a few nice Duke Reid pieces here, more than any other single producer for that matter), Running For My Life does exactly what it was meant to do and for all the real reggae fans out there, you will immediately lose yourself in the record WISHING that maybe Luciano could have come forth just a couple of decades prior to his eventual arrival, but luckily some of those older pieces are truly timeless! The second track, Bring Back the Vibes finds Luciano taking on another piece from one of reggae's finest producers of all time, this time the legendary Bunny Lee and on a downright magical song which speaks about doing exactly what it is:

"bring back the real vibes round here, that's what the people want to hear, turn up the sounds make them play, and then we dance `til the break of day!", just the perfect example of exactly what the album as a whole is about, pushing the vibes back and forward at the same time, taking a step back to go two steps ahead. As you step ahead through the rest of the album what it is actually takes on its true shape. God is Greater Than Man the track is an older song for Luciano, I believe it came forth 2002-2003 and it IS a big track without a doubt. God is Greater Than Man, the album, is a pretty much a compilation album, albeit with a few nice new pieces, compiled by producer Donville Davis, so he'll get the partial credit for bringing these tracks together. Davis, now that I think of it, served a similar function on Tony Curtis' album for Cousins Records, Leave the Collie Alone from 2006 and complete producer credits for Frankie Paul`s Are You Ready and Michael Rose`s Babylon a Fight, both recent releases by Cousins.



Getting to the majority of the album, although the opening two tracks of God is Greater Than Man are exceptionally strong (as is the third), the finest piece on the album altogether is definitely Give Thanks & Praise and although I could probably sing you about 15 different tunes from different artists with the exact same title, this one stands out. Bubbling just divine over a classic classic Reid riddim (which was rebirth on Bitty McLean's MASSIVE Baby Tonite, and for me listening to any song on that riddim is almost double because I'm also singing Baby Tonite in my head at the same time) the tune lives up the very high standard of any tune ever recorded over the riddim ultimately just by making one simple yet lovely request, "Stand up and tell me do you love the creator!". I love the song and although it probably won't be pushed very well at all (and it probably already has been released somewhere) but the track is probably one of my favorite Luciano has EVER recorded, yes its that good!



Check Kingdom of Jah over the classic Conqueror riddim by Bunny Lee (from Cornell Campbell Gorgon fame), again, just a nice merger of generations on the track and credits go to Davis for setting that up as it is a very recent recording and one specifically mixed for this album. And I'm really looking forward to seeing Davis' other projects in the future because it appears as if he definitely has a great feel for the music, not only the older artists, but the modern as well. Go forth and Luciano actually enters the hallowed halls of Studio One on the excellent and `lightly' pounding Borrowed Time. Borrowed Time is a tune that sticks with you in that old style where the riddim didn't deviate much from that basic one-drop (and you HAVE to hear Luci on the one drop) but gives it to you so hard that it stays in your head to the point where you continue nodding your head on that beat despite the fact that the next track, in this case the excellent newer Strive, has began. I have to recommend to you Cheer Up (which starts like he`s about to start singing MANY RIVERS TO CROSS!), which is a song that points out everything I've ever said about Luciano's music just making you feel better, in this instance, Luciano makes a point of telling his woman that he'll be back soon from tour and to keep a joy and cheer up, but as is most of his music, it is applicable in far greater circumstances as well. Lastly, check Take Me There, another Studio One piece which ends the album (save for the Bad Situation remix which isn't too dissimilar to the original Bad Situation) on a fine fine note and one a slightly more up-tempo note. My only real critique of the album is that it comes and goes entirely too quickly!



Overall, I'm definitely not only recommending God is Greater Than Man for all true reggae fans out there, I'm hailing it as one of the best albums of the year! I love the fusion of Luciano in particular with the older vibes and having just last year heard Sizzla do the same thing on the excellent Waterhouse Redemption for Jammys, hearing Luciano go the same route is just as interesting, I'm even more interested in seeing just who will make that decision and do it next (I think an excellent choice would be Norrisman). Dancehall has recently been going through a stage (which appears to be dwindling now actually) which the older dancehall riddims have received second and in some cases third chances with the current group of artists and I'd love to see the more rootical side continue going through it as well (check Gaddafi's wicked relick of Marley's Redemption Song riddim, now called the Old Pirtes), and should the trend continue, and actually develop there can be not too many better choices than the Messenjah, definitely check out God is Greater Than Man!"